It's a bold statement. And a contentious one. The DMA is here to champion copywriting, listen to copywriters, create the conditions in which they can do what they do best, highlight the value of copy to growing businesses and rally our community behind them as they rewrite the future of one-to-one-to-millions communications.

Writing is a skill that I have always enjoyed and use in my marketing work at Royal Mail. However I often suffer from a lack of confidence and have been known to procrastinate over copy for what seems like a never-ending time, then panic write as deadlines approach.

I’ve been a writer – professionally – for going on 9 years and yet, the DMA Future Writers' Lab is the first ‘writing course’ I’ve signed up for. I was lucky enough to be nominated through my work as one of two candidates to partake in the course.

We asked more than 430 British copywriters, at all stages in their career, about their job and the state of the industry. Turns out they’re mostly unhappy, but still love what they do. Here’s what they said, in their words.